As a rule, combustion machines for motor vehicles have a cooling system in which a coolant is pumped through at least one cooling circuit by means of one or more coolant pumps and, in the process, said coolant picks up thermal energy from components that are integrated into the cooling circuit, among other things, an internal combustion engine. Once an operating temperature range of the combustion machine has been reached, this thermal energy is subsequently released into the ambient air in an ambient heat exchanger, especially the so-called main cooler, as well as at times, in a heating heat exchanger; in the case of the heating heat exchanger, this energy is transferred to the ambient air provided for the climate control of the interior of the motor vehicle.
A combustion machine for a motor vehicle can also have an exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) system by means of which part of the exhaust gas generated by an internal combustion engine of the combustion machine can be conveyed out of an exhaust gas line of the combustion machine into a fresh gas line of the combustion machine and can then be recirculated to the internal combustion engine through said fresh gas line. In this manner, especially certain pollutant emissions should be kept at low levels during operation of the combustion machine. A known procedure is the use of a so-called high-pressure exhaust gas recirculation system in which the associated exhaust gas recirculation system branches off from the exhaust gas line upstream from a turbine of an exhaust gas turbocharger that is integrated into the exhaust gas line and opens up into the fresh gas line downstream from a compressor of the exhaust gas turbocharger integrated into the fresh gas line. A likewise known procedure is the use of a so-called low-pressure exhaust gas recirculation system in which the associated exhaust gas recirculation system branches off from the exhaust gas line downstream from the turbine of an exhaust gas turbocharger and opens up into the fresh gas line upstream from the compressor of the exhaust gas turbocharger. In order to avoid an excessively high temperature of the fresh gas that is fed to the internal combustion engine and that is an air-exhaust gas mixture when the exhaust gas recirculation system is activated, it can be provided for an (EGR) cooler to be integrated into the exhaust gas recirculation line, whereby said cooler, as a heat exchanger, allows thermal energy from the exhaust gas that is to be recirculated to be transferred to a coolant that is likewise flowing through the heat exchanger. Normally, such an EGR cooler is integrated into a cooling system of the combustion machine, said cooling system also comprising cooling channels of the internal combustion engine.
Combustion machines that are provided to power motor vehicles are usually charged in order to increase the specific output and to reduce the specific fuel consumption. A widespread technique consists of charging combustion machines by means of one or more exhaust gas turbochargers. These comprise a turbine with a rotor that is struck by a flow of exhaust gas discharged by an internal combustion engine of the combustion machine, as a result of which said rotor is made to rotate. Via a shaft, the rotor of the turbine drives a rotor of a compressor that is integrated into a fresh gas line of the internal combustion engine, thereby compressing the fresh gas. As an alternative, such a compressor can also be driven by a different kind of drive, for example, by the internal combustion engine itself or by an electric drive motor. Owing to the compression, among other things, the amount of fresh gas introduced into the combustion chambers of the internal combustion engine and thus the amount of fuel that can be reacted in the combustion chamber during one working cycle can be increased. At the same time, however, the compression causes the temperature and thus the specific volume of the compressed fresh gas to be increased, thus countering the increase in the filling of the combustion chambers that is the objective of the compression. In order to avoid this, an intercooler is normally integrated into the fresh gas line downstream from the compressor, said intercooler bringing about an at least partial re-cooling of the fresh gas (charge air) that had been warmed up by the compression. Such an intercooler can also be integrated into the cooling system of the combustion machine so that this cooling effect is based on a heat transfer from the fresh gas to the coolant of the cooling system flowing through the intercooler.
German patent application DE 102 24 063 A1 discloses a method to regulate the heat of a combustion machine with a coolant circuit and actuatable means to influence the heat balance of the combustion machine, whereby the coolant temperature and other operating parameters of the combustion machine are acquired and the actuatable means are actuated as a function of the coolant temperature and of the other operating parameters of the combustion machine. Here, the coolant temperature and/or of the other operating parameters are regulated in such a way that an initial value is prescribed for determining a control variable by means of a basic characteristic map as a function of the rotational speed of and the load of the combustion machine, and this initial value is corrected by means of a regulator as a function of the coolant temperature and/or the other operating parameters.
German patent application DE 10 2008 064 231 A1 discloses a cooling system for a combustion machine of a motor vehicle in which a compensation tank is configured in such a way that it effectuates appropriate cooling of the coolant contained therein.
German patent application DE 10 2010 003 622 A1 describes measures to bring a catalytic converter of a combustion machine of a motor vehicle up to a prescribed operating temperature as quickly as possible after a cold start as well as to also maintain the operating temperature during the operation of the vehicle, for example, when the automatic stop function for the internal combustion engine of the combustion machine is activated.
German patent application DE 10 2010 027 220 A1 discloses a method to start a combustion machine, whereby a crankshaft of the combustion machine is turned, and fuel as well as combustion air are fed into the working cylinder through a combustion air channel in order to initiate combustion processes in at least one working cylinder of the combustion machine. In this process, before the combustion processes are initiated and before combustion air is fed into the at least one working cylinder, a compressor pumps the combustion air in a circuit comprising a bypass line that bridges this compressor in the combustion air channel, as a result of which the combustion air should be preheated.
German translation of publication of international application DE 11 2015 001 115 T5 describes a heat management system comprising a heat pump for a motor vehicle.